The Democratic Party's Mamdani moment: From the Politics Desk
Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team's latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
I n today's edition, Ben Kamisar sifts through the fallout from Zohran Mamdani's surge to the top of the Democratic primary field for New York mayor. Plus, Andrea Mitchell examines the impact of President Donald Trump's questioning of the post-Iran strike intelligence reports.
— Adam Wollner
What Zohran Mamdani's rise means for the Democratic Party nationally
By Ben Kamisar
Zohran Mamdani's dramatic, strong showing in New York's Democratic mayoral primary, in which he forced a concession from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, amounts to a massive shot in the arm for progressives and other Democrats who have been imploring their party's elder statesmen to step aside for a new generation of leaders.
Mamdani ran his campaign as an unapologetic progressive against an established favorite who argued his pragmatism would best meet the moment, a 33-year-old fresh face against a field of experienced candidates, a democratic socialist at a time when many Democrats worry whether that moniker alienates them from swing voters and a critic of Israel's conduct in its war against Hamas, despite criticism from moderate Democrats who accused him of stoking antisemitism.
Tuesday night's primary was far from a clear test case for any one of those factors, with Cuomo's 2021 resignation as governor amid allegations of sexual harassment and Covid mismanagement also in play. And New York City voters are hardly representative of the swing-district and swing-state electorates that determine who holds power in Washington — one reason Republicans are already using Mamdani as a rhetorical foil to swing-seat Democrats.
But Mamdani's surge — putting him on the precipice of the Democratic nomination, with the results of the ranked choice tabulation scheduled to come next week — is putting the rest of the Democratic Party on notice.
Democratic divisions: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a Brooklyn native who endorsed Mamdani, told Ryan Nobles that Tuesday's results are an indication of where the energy is in the Democratic Party — primarily because candidates like Mamdani are focusing on the cost-of-living issues that voters care about.
'He talked to the needs of the working class,' Sanders said. 'He was prepared to take on the billionaire class and their super PACs, mobilize people at the grassroots level who knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors. That's how you win elections.'
Democrats' top leaders in Congress — Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both New Yorkers — offered more muted responses. They released statements congratulating Mamdani, but they didn't explicitly call for the party to fall in line behind him in the general election.
And Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi, two New York Democrats who are veterans of battleground congressional races, put out statements criticizing Mamdani. Gillen called him 'too extreme,' and Suozzi said his 'concerns remain' about Mamdani.
Trump is on a slippery slope as he disputes intelligence on Iran strikes
Analysis by Andrea Mitchell
'Obliterated' is the way President Donald Trump has described Iran's Fordo nuclear facility, both within hours of Saturday's complex B-2 strike and again today. At the NATO summit, he and his national security team are furiously disputing a preliminary Pentagon intelligence analysis that the destruction of the nuclear program was less than complete.
The conflict betrays a continuing misunderstanding by the White House of the nature of intelligence.
The Defense Intelligence Agency is one of 17 agencies intensely studying the results of the extraordinarily precise bombing mission. The pilots did their jobs: They flew for 37 hours and hit their targets, for the first time dropping 14 massive 'bunker buster' bombs in combat.
Now analysts, using complex measuring devices of soil disturbances, atmospheric dust, debris from bomb craters and electronic intercepts of Iranian conversations, among other data, are assessing the remaining risk of a reconstituted nuclear threat. It could take months — or forever — to have absolute confidence or unanimity in a conclusion. Their job is to provide a continuous flow of intelligence to the commander in chief and his advisers so they can decide what to do next.
The slippery slope here is for the president and his team to jump to conclusions that the strike 'obliterated' anything. Today Trump also said of Iran: 'I don't see them getting back involved in the nuclear business anymore. I think they've had it.'
But the independent International Atomic Energy Agency reports Iran most likely moved its highly enriched uranium to other underground locations before the U.S. strike. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told me last Friday the United States could bomb Iran's nuclear program but not its knowledge. And now Iran is still insisting on its right to continue enriching uranium, despite never having explained why it needed to enrich nuclear fuel to near-weapons grade 60% purity — far beyond what is required for peaceful use.
Late Wednesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, in what appeared to rebalance the debate, issued a statement that the CIA can confirm 'credible intelligence' indicating Iran's nuclear program has been 'severely damaged' by the U.S. strikes, destroying several nuclear facilities that would take years to rebuild. He did not say Iran had given up its nuclear aspirations or could not rebuild.
If Trump and his team want political spin instead of honest, if preliminary, intelligence, they will end up getting sources like the agent code-named ' Curveball,' who said Iraq had developed biological weapons, leading the CIA director to call it a 'slam dunk.' That is how presidents mistakenly launch forever wars.
, by Dan De Luce
🎙️Here's the Scoop
This week, NBC News launched ' Here's the Scoop,' a new evening podcast that brings you a fresh take on the day's top stories in 15 minutes or less.
In today's episode, host Yasmin Vossoughian talks with national security correspondent Courtney Kube about the intelligence assessments after the United States' strikes on Iran.
Listen to the full episode here →
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Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Jake Tapper unloads on Trump for 'ugly' attack on CNN over Iran bombing report
Jake Tapper defended CNN's reporting on Donald Trump 's strikes against Iran 's nuclear facilities, while ripping the president's 'ugly attack' on the press. The administration has rubbished reports by both CNN and the New York Times that the damage to Iran's nuclear facilities from Saturday night's bombing was not as severe as they had hoped, while simultaneously demanding the person who leaked incomplete intel be jailed. Tapper went off on Trump during his Wednesday show: 'Today, President Trump and his administration are going after shooting the messengers in an increasingly ugly way.' He also defended Natasha Bertrand, the CNN reporter who broke the story and whom Trump said should be fired. 'They're calling journalists 'fake news' for true stories. They're calling for an excellent CNN reporter, Natasha Bertrand, to be fired, which is preposterous — and to which a CNN statement today reads, 'we stand 100 percent behind Natasha Bertarnd's journalism, as they should,' he continued. The anchor added: 'The Trump administration is also accusing any news media who reports on this intel assessment as not being patriotic.' Tapper went into a dissection of CNN's reporting on the matter, saying that the Defense Intelligence Agency's assessment of the bombing was 'low confidence... meaning that the DIA is far from sure about it.' 'It was described to CNN by seven people briefed on the DIA assessment, and our reporting stressed that the assessment's conclusion could evolve as new information comes to light,' he said. Tapper claimed that CNN reached out to the White House before broadcasting the story and that the administration 'attacked the assessment but confirmed it exists.' 'Even President Trump himself today confirmed it,' he said. Tapper said he was not criticizing the troops who executed the strikes, saying they 'honor and respect' them. 'The key questions for the American people in the world are simply about the degree of success of the operation, and the current state of Iran's nuclear weapons program and what the intelligence — not the politicians — what the intelligence reveals,' Tapper said. 'Our obligation as journalists is not to praise President Trump, or protect his feelings, or to disparage him, or to praise him — for that matter. Our obligation is to report facts. In this case, the fact is that an initial DIA intel assessment out of Secretary Pete Hegseth's own Pentagon exists. And that's not going to change, no matter how many insults Trump levels.' As he ended the segment, he again pointed out that they 'don't know' whether their reporting or the administration's claims are accurate yet. 'That's the point of publishing what we know that the government learns, once we learn it. The news media needs to press for facts, even if it's uncomfortable. Even if, as Americans and as humans, there is a personal instinct to rally around the flag.' He finished: 'Asking questions is literally our job, demanding facts and answers, instead of just taking a president's word for it. History has taught us that the most pro-service member action we can take is to ask questions of our leaders, especially in times of war. That, for journalists, is the height of patriotism.' The leaked report from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reportedly states that the U.S. strikes only delayed Iran from getting a nuclear weapon by a couple of months. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the FBI has taken the lead on conducting the probe after CNN, the New York Times and other outlets disclosed the report's findings. 'We're doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now, because this information is for internal purposes, battle damage assessments, and CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad,' he said during a NATO meeting alongside Trump and other top officials on Wednesday. The Pentagon chief defended the president like an attack dog, claiming the Fordow nuclear enrichment site was 'obliterated.' Flanked by Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Hegseth also mentioned how the classified document was only a preliminary assessment. 'It was a top secret report, it was preliminary, it was low confidence,' the Pentagon secretary explained. 'Given the 30,000 pounds of explosives and capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow, and the amount of munitions, six per location, any assessment that tells you something otherwise is speculating with other motives.' He added that the preliminary DIA battle damage assessment indicated 'moderate to severe' damage was done to the facility. The administration, Hegseth continued, believes it was 'far more likely severe and obliterated.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was sitting next to Hegseth, argued the leakers had an agenda. 'This is what a leaker is telling you the intelligence says,' he said of the report. 'That's the game these people play. They read it and then they go out and characterize it the way they want it characterized.' He added it was 'against the law' to leak the information and told the media the leakers 'characterize it for you in a way that's absolutely false.' Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin similarly said Wednesday that "it is still early to assess the results of the operation.' Though he added, 'I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear program, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years.' In a Truth Social post on Wednesday afternoon, Trump revealed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would address the public at 8am Thursday morning to provide 'both interesting and irrefutable' proof about the success of the mission. Trump said the purpose of the conference is to 'fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots. 'These Patriots were very upset,' he said. 'After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then, two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times. 'They felt terribly!' Trump reminded them that the doubts about the success of the mission were 'as usual, solely for the purpose of demeaning PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.' His comments come after the CIA confirmed Ira n's nuclear facilities suffered 'severe damage' after the devastating airstrikes Saturday night. Trump had earlier suggested Hegseth's title should be changed to the 'Secretary of War' given the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, and kicked off meetings at the NATO summit on Wednesday by comparing Saturday's precision airstrikes to the two atomic bombings on Japan that ended World War II. 'I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki. But that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war,' he told reporters at The Hague. Seven B-2 bombers flew from the U.S. to Iran on Saturday to carry out what Pentagon officials have said is the most sophisticated stealth airstrike in decades. Each B-2 carried two 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs aimed at Fordow's nuclear labs hundreds of feet underground. The 14 bunker busters dropped on Fordow weighed a total of nearly 420,000 pounds combined, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell has said. 'Fake news, CNN and MSDNC, all of these terrible people, you know, they have no credibility,' Trump slammed the outlets reporting on the intel leak. 'The document said it could be very severe damage,' Trump said at Wednesday's NATO meeting. 'But they didn't take that.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Hamas official says Gaza mediators intensifying ceasefire efforts
A senior Hamas official has told the BBC that mediators have intensified their efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain comments came as US President Donald Trump said "great progress" was being made since Israel and Iran ended their 12-day war on Tuesday, and that his envoy Steve Witkoff thought an agreement between Israel and Hamas was "very close".Israeli attacks across Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 45 Palestinians, including some who were seeking aid, the Hamas-run health ministry the Israeli military announced that seven soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on Tuesday claimed by Hamas. "I think great progress is being made on Gaza, I think because of this attack that we made," President Trump told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday, referring to the US air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities carried out at the weekend amid the conflict between Israel and Iran."I think we're going to have some very good news. I was talking to Steve Witkoff... [and] he did tell me that Gaza's very close," he after Trump spoke, the senior Hamas official told the BBC that mediators were "engaged in intensive contacts aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement".However, he added that the group had "not received any new proposal so far".An Israeli official also told the Haaretz newspaper that there has been no progress in the negotiations, and that major disagreements remained unresolved. Efforts by the US, Qatar and Egypt to broker a deal stalled at the end of May, when Witkoff said Hamas had sought "totally unacceptable" amendments to a US proposal backed by Israel for a 60-day truce, during which half the living Israeli hostages and half of those who have died would be resumed its military offensive in Gaza on 18 March, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release its hostages. Fifty are still in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be also imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza at the start of March, which it partially eased after 11 weeks following pressure from US allies and warnings from global experts that half a million people were facing the same time, Israel and the US backed the establishment of a new aid distribution mechanism run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is intended to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to Palestinians. They said the GHF's system would prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing. The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, says it has distributed food packages containing more than 44 million meals since it began operating on 26 May, with more than 2.4 million handed out at three sites on the UN and other aid groups have refused to co-operate with the GHF, accusing it of co-operating with Israel's goals in a way that violates fundamental humanitarian have also expressed alarm at the near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed near the group's sites, which are inside Israeli military to Gaza's health ministry, at least 549 people have been killed and 4,000 injured while trying to collect aid since the GHF began distributing aid on 26 Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said six people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire at crowds waiting near one of the GHF's food distribution centre in central others were killed near a GHF site in the southern city of Rafah, he the Israeli military said it was "not aware of any incidents with casualties in those areas", while the GHF said the reports of any such incidents near its sites were Gaza City, funerals were held for some of the 33 people who the health ministry said had been killed over the previous day while waiting for aid."I say and repeat a million times," Abu Mohammed told Reuters news agency. "These aid points are not aid points, these are death points."Unicef spokesman James Elder, who has just visited Gaza, said: "So long as a population is denied food, people are being offered this lethal choice and, unfortunately, because it's in a combat zone, it cannot improve."The Civil Defence spokesman also said another six people, including a child, were killed in an air strike on a house early on Wednesday in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central others were killed when homes in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, he said. More than 860 Palestinians were reported killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the Israel-Iran conflict, which began when Israel launched an air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Iran launched barrages of missiles towards Israel in in Gaza were divided in their assessments of what the ceasefire meant for the viewed the weakening of Iran, Hamas's key regional backer, as a potentially positive step towards achieving a truce in Gaza because it might force the group to ease its however, feared the end of the conflict would allow Israel to redirect its military focus back on Gaza and intensify its air and ground man in Khan Younis, Nader Ramadan, told the BBC that it felt like "everything got worse" in Gaza during the conflict."The [Israeli] bombing intensified, the damage increased, and the incursion expanded in certain areas… We only felt the destruction," he Abu Reda said the most difficult thing was the lack of access to aid. He said items were being looted and sold for inflated prices, and civilians were coming under Israeli fire when trying to get food."What are we supposed to do?" he asked. "We feel the shooting and the killing all the time." In Israel, the military announced that seven of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Gaza on Tuesday - the deadliest such incident since the ceasefire Brig-Gen Effie Defrin said an explosive device was attached to an armoured vehicle in the Khan Younis area, and that the blast caused the vehicle to catch fire. Helicopters and rescue forces made several unsuccessful attempts to rescue them, he Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was "a difficult day for the people of Israel".The deaths renewed pressure on Netanyahu to agree a ceasefire, with the leader of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party in his governing coalition saying Israel should end the war and bring home all the hostages."I don't understand what we're fighting for and for what purpose... when soldiers are being killed all the time?" Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism told the Israeli Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 56,157 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health reporting by Alice Cuddy in Jerusalem
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Mamdani's stunning upset in New York's Democratic mayoral primary carries risks, rewards for national Democrats
NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's unexpected upset in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday exhilarated progressive activists, who had banded together to prevent the more moderate former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo from triumphing. But the surprise outcome also generated excitement from a very different group of people: national Republicans. Soon after it became clear that Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker, was likely to prevail, Republican Vice President JD Vance sent congratulations on social media to the "new leader of the Democratic Party." The Republican's congressional campaign arm called him an "antisemitic socialist radical" and promised to tie him to every vulnerable Democrat in next year's midterm elections. And on Wednesday, Republican President Donald Trump - a native New Yorker - piled on, writing on social media, "It's finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor." The reactions underscore both the risks and the rewards for the Democratic Party - still trying to find its footing five months into Trump's term - in having an unabashed left-wing nominee running in the country's biggest city this fall. Mamdani's campaign, which drew plaudits for its cheery tone and clever viral videos, could help energize young voters, a demographic that Democrats are desperate to reach in 2026 and beyond. His rise from a virtual unknown was fueled by a relentless focus on affordability, an issue Democrats struggled to address during last year's presidential race. "Cost of living is the issue of our time," Neera Tanden, the chief executive of Democratic think tank Center for American Progress wrote on X in response to Mamdani's win. "It's the through line animating all politics. Smart political leaders respond to it." His history-making candidacy – Mamdani, born in Uganda to Indian parents, would be the city's first Muslim and Indian American mayor – could also drive engagement among Asian and especially Muslim voters, some of whom soured on the party after the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza. 'These elections aren't about left, right or center, they're about whether you're a change to the status quo. People don't want more of the same, they want someone who plays a different game,' said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. But Mamdani's criticism of Israel and his democratic socialism are also likely to show up frequently in Republican attack ads. Much of the Democratic establishment had lined up behind Cuomo, including former President Bill Clinton, partly out of unease over Mamdani's platform. Mamdani has repeatedly said he is not antisemitic. "I think he's an easy target for Republicans who want to use scare tactics to talk about the Muslim mayor from New York City who's uber-left," said Patrick Egan, a political science professor at New York University. But Egan noted, Mamdani has also proven to be an adept politician. "When people get exposed to this guy, they tend to like him," he said. Basil Smikle, a political analyst and professor at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies, said heavy-handed attacks on Mamdani could backfire by energizing "a lot of the Democratic voters to want to push more against Trump." "I don't think it hurts Democrats in the long run," he said. "I actually think it helps them." For his part, Mamdani seemed ready to embrace his role as a party leader, telling supporters in his victory speech that he would govern the city "as a model for the Democratic Party – a party where we fight for working people with no apology." He vowed to use his mayoral power to "reject Donald Trump's fascism." Democratic voters say they want a new generation of leaders and a party that concentrates on economic issues, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month. "The Democratic Party is trying to figure itself out," said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York. While Mamdani enters the general election as the favorite in a city dominated by Democrats, the race is more unsettled than usual. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, is running as an independent after his popularity plummeted following his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent decision by Trump's Justice Department to drop the case. Cuomo also retains the ability to run as an independent, though he has not yet decided whether to do so. The Republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels. Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor, is running as an independent, as well. The primary had become a two-man race by Election Day between Mamdani and Cuomo, echoing other Democratic nominating contests in which the party's establishment and liberal wings have wrestled for power. But it was also a generational clash between Mamdani and Cuomo, the 67-year-old scion of a New York political family. That said, Cuomo carried plenty of personal baggage, four years after he resigned the governorship amid allegations of sexual harassment, which he has denied. "Some people were voting for Mamdani to express their displeasure for Cuomo," Greer said. Mamdani's unlikely ascension bore some of the same hallmarks of similar rises for two other democratic socialists, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom endorsed his campaign. Sanders, an independent, emerged as a leading Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020, while Ocasio-Cortez pulled off an upset in 2018 by defeating a longtime incumbent Democrat.
